January 28, 2014

A bit behind, but not too much.  Here is a recap of our last week.

On Sunday the 19th we had some of the missionaries and a marine come eat with us after church.  There were nine of us plus Justin and Ryan.  We had tacos and fajitas, which was a good choice because it helped keep the boys occupied at the table with their food as well.  We had pineapple upside down cake for dessert and there wasn't any left the next day.  I decided that I will make another one for my birthday because for some reason because I didn't get my fill.  Funny how I hadn't made one in forever and now I keep craving it.  The boys are always excited to have people come over for dinner and we had a good time eating and talking.

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so Rob didn't have to go to work.  The boys went off to school and he was able to enjoy watching some football from the previous night.  Justin came home from school anxious to go to Monika's birthday party.  Seemed like forever until it was time to go.

Monika's party was the most extravagant birthday party for a 7 year old that we have ever attended.  We got there at 6:00 (the time the party started) even though we are in Armenia.  Oops.  Not even Monika's family was there yet.  We walked up the stairs to the party room, tracking the dirty, wet snow from our boots.  So lovely on the white tile and quite obvious who is tracking it in.  Of course there was someone there ready with a mop to clean up after us.

There was a lifesize Monika cut-out over by a spring background.  Later I saw her get her picture taken next to it.  It was like she was twins.  Between the children and adult sections was an open area in front of the stage.  Balloons covered the floor and provided a fun activity for the children.

Yep, just us hanging at the party.  Already got the
funky light thing going on though.

Slowly people began to arrive.  More and more children played with the balloons until they had all been popped. Adults were shown their tables and the children theirs.  They had pizza, popcorn, sodas, and a variety of snacks at their place.  In addition, there was basically a mini candy store set up for children to choose lollipops, cake pops, chocolate, pudding, and a variety of other sweets as they wanted throughout the evening.



One of the girls in J's class.

That's the birthday treat station behind the boys. The mini sized
Monika cut out is on the right side of the picture.

 I wish that I had been able to take pictures of more of the guests without being obvious.  Many of them reminded me of a cross between models and people dressed for a theme party of some sort.  In addition to the professional photographer there were two people with video cameras capturing the event.  Evidently, Monika is on a TV show here in Armenia and part of her party will be on the show.  Some song was played and she made her way from the stage, around the room, being filmed as she walked around singing and posing.  Later we saw some home videos of her and some clips from her TV show.

Sweater dude is one of the guys taping the party.
I had to get a shot of this kid though.  I have NEVER seen
a kid in the US dressed up like this.

Short dresses like this one make me glad that I don't have daughters to dress.

While all of this was going on, we had plenty to eat being brought to our table.  There was a variety of Armenian food, but I stuck primarily to the meat, lavash (bread), and cheese since it was all something I recognized and knew that I liked.


The adult tables

One of the children's tables.

A clown, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Winnie the Pooh joined the party to dance and play with the children.  Not long after two more juggling clowns arrived.  I thought they had a gypsy fortune teller hired as well, but she ended up being the parent of one of the children attending.  Oops.



 

 

We left at 8:00, though some people had just arrived.  I noticed that the children's tables were being filled with platters of chicken kabobs and French fries.  I guess that is why Ryan's pizza had been cleared away while he was asking me if he could have another treat. The treat ended up tasting like stale breakfast cereal flavored with strawberry Nestle Quick, but he didn't seem to mind.  He hadn't liked the pudding, which had a consistency that suggested quite a bit of gelatin or something in it.  I thought it might be able bounce like a bouncy ball if you shaped it right.  I couldn't quite figure out the flavor either.  Not the typical US birthday treats.  It is fun to be able to try them, even if they aren't always to my taste.

Birthday girl (in blue) with her mother and siblings

Justin with the birthday girl



That's my crazy little Ryan!

No alcohol at the children's tables, but plenty of soda.
Ryan thought he was going to throw up when he got home.

It was very interesting to get to go to Monika's party.  My children certainly have been to a variety of parties from super low key to extravagant.  It is nice that at this age they don't seem content with all of them. 

The rest of the week was pretty dull by comparison.  I wanted to place a grocery order, but gave up when I saw they were out of milk, eggs, chicken, ground beef, cheese, butter, and produce.  Nice.  They did have potatoes and onions, but not even carrots or cabbage.  I am glad that we have a fridge and a freezer in our garage so we can stock up on things.  The alternative would be to eat like the locals, but I don't know how fatty meat and heavy breads would work for us day after day.

On Friday, J's school had mother son night so he and I left Ryan with Skyler to babysit while we headed off. 

After taking a picture of us, we were able to find a table and play some games for awhile.  Justin chose to play Battleship with Noor, a new boy in his class.  I played with Noor's younger brother so that their mother could help Justin and Noor figure out the game which was new to them both.  Justin opted not to make a picture frame, but continued to play games until treasure hunt time.

I could not keep up with Justin on the treasure hunt.  He was running around quickly and we were the first to finish. He got to choose a bag filled with goodies, pencils, balloons, an eraser, and a noisemaker.

Next we gathered in a circle for dancing.  The first dance was the chicken dance.  Justin hid behind me and then wanted to sit out for the rest of the dancing.  He didn't know the chicken dance and was sure that everyone was going to laugh at him if he did it wrong.  Uh, yeah.  I don't know what professional dancers he was watching, but I he would have to do something pretty major to call attention to himself.  Perhaps if his pants ripped out or he took a nose dive.  Oh well.  We sat and watched the others dance.  Luckily it was only about 15 minutes.

Next was food and a show.  We had pizza and juice.  This was the most exciting part for me because it meant that I didn't have to cook dinner.  Ryan had a sandwich and Rob could have leftovers.  Yay!  We watched a rather horrible show about a little engine that could, but not THE little engine that could.  When it was finished, they showed clips of all of the boys who were there that night.  They each said what they like to do with their mothers.  As this started, the boys started to hide under chairs, cover their heads with their coats, or pretend in some other manner to be embarrassed.  My son asked if he could go sit by Charlie and his mom.  It was very cute, but I guess Justin was expecting some major special effects because he was disappointed in how the video turned out.

We walked home and Justin was very excited to spend some time with Skyler since Rob was working late and still not home.  I explained that since I was home they did not need to be babysat, but needed to get ready for bed.  Justin was devastated that Ryan got to spend time with a babysitter and he did not.  So unfair.

Got the boys in bed and Justin let me know what a sad day it was for him.  School "wastes" most of his time.  His teacher ALWAYS gets to decide what they are going to learn and when.  She also makes him infer a lot when his brain would like to be busy doing other things.  Rough life, huh?  Then mother son night had not lived up to his expectations.  I am sure that my birthday will be a big disappointment to him as well.

Speaking of birthdays, Justin did not understand that grown ups are not generally as excited as children are about birthdays.  The way he sees it, he still has plenty of birthdays left to celebrate, but I am getting old and don't have too many left.  Nice.

Saturday brought a fear of a tornado.  No, Justin, it was a plane flying by, not a tornado.  And no, I don't even think Armenia has tornadoes.  Then he freaked out about scorpions.  He didn't want to take a bath because maybe a scorpion would come into the bathroom and climb in with him and sting him.  Are there scorpions in Armenia?  Yes.  Have we seen any in our neighborhood or house yet?  No.  He wanted to know all about scorpions and what would happen if he were to be stung, blah, blah, blah.  Rob found a picture to show him.  I was thankful that he didn't click on the link about the five year old Armenian girl dying from a scorpion bite.  I had just assured Justin that would NOT happen.  Now I just need to hope that he doesn't worry about a tornado bringing scorpions and having them fly all around us.

Justin continued to worry.  The new boy in his class did not have a notebook for French class and the teacher told him to get one.  Could we buy Noor one?   I said that his family could take care of that.  Justin worried about the cost of notebooks and if the family could afford it.  I said they could.  How did I know?  Well, his dad works at the Embassy too and makes enough money to buy a notebook.  Of course Justin wanted to know how much people who work at the Embassy get each time they go to work.  Sigh.  Is it any wonder I get more gray hairs each day?

December 1, 2013

I can't believe that it is already December!  November went by pretty quickly.  The weather is definitely colder, particularly at night, but we have yet to see snow.

More leaves ready to be picked up!  These are some I did, but the community crew came and raked some as well. 

Cyrus' family is leaving on Dec. 6th, so this week the movers were busy packing them up.  Ryan was thrilled to have Cyrus come over to play after preschool so that he wouldn't be underfoot.  Ryan is starting to get a little bit sad about Cyrus leaving.  Even though Cyrus is only 3 1/2, the boys get along pretty well and he lives right across the street! 

J and R playing with Cryus in the rocks.

When our mail arrived on Monday, I was happy (for once) that we hadn't gotten very much. Everything had gotten very very wet from sitting out on the tarmac for heaven knows how long and it was absolutely soaked!  Unfortunately, my book order was one of the things that arrived.  About half of the books were quite wet.  I dried them off as best as I could.  While many aren't pretty, they can still be read.  Justin could hardly wait for some of them to be dry enough to read.

I had a fan blowing on the books all night.  It seemed to help.

 

Thursday was Thanksgiving.  Rob and I went over the many Thanksgivings we have had since we have been married and realize that very few have been traditional.  Those that were usually were only because we were in the US with family.  A big Thanksgiving meal for the four of us (with only two of us really eating much of it) seemed a bit much.  We decided that we will do the whole turkey thing over New Year's when Rob has three days off.  Instead we did what we did for our first Thanksgiving--pizza and pies!  Of course it isn't like Papa John's delivers here, so Rob made homemade pizza. :)  We opened our pizza stone (Christmas present) early so we could have the best pizza possible.  I made cherry and pumpkin pies.  We also had chips and onion dip.  Justin came home from school and we had an early dinner together while we watched one of the Shrek movies on TV.  Definitely not the Thanksgiving most people picture, but it was relaxing and we enjoyed it.

Friday Rob and I went out to the mall to see a new grocery store.  We rarely go to the mall because there is nothing there that we would want to buy.  It is easy enough to get to though, so we went to see if the grocery store was any good.  It has nice wide aisles, but it isn't any better than the closer store in terms of stocking products we want.

The mall on Black Friday.

 

Either they haven't stocked yet for the day (but they have been open at least an hour!) or they are out of a lot of produce.  Neither thing would be unusual.

In the evening we had a 6:00 PM dentist appointment for Ryan.  He had been complaining about a tooth when he ate.  Sure enough, he had a cavity in a back tooth.  We spent an hour an a half at the dentist getting it taken care of.  I was SO proud of him!  He was nervous going in, but he was brave and very well behaved.  The pediatric dentist doesn't speak much English, but someone else came in to talk with us and explain what needed to be done.  While working on Ryan, the dentist often told him that he was a good boy and that he was being brave.  Sometimes she just spoke in a soothing voice in Armenian.  I was standing right there too and tried to distract him when he looked like he was getting upset or scared.  The bill came in at under $40 and it looked just as modern as the dentist we go to in the US.  Yay!  Not that I hope we have to go in to see her a lot, but we know a dentist for the boys now.   Justin was playing on my phone in the waiting room or I would have taken a picture.

We went to KFC for dinner because it was dinner time and KFC was just up the street.  We ordered Ryan ice cream and pineapple juice so he wouldn't chew on his numbed cheek.  Looks like he did that later on in his sleep anyway. :(

On Saturday I went with Ryan to a birthday party.  The girl's birthday is the same day as his so I was hoping it wouldn't upset him that he isn't having a party.  He enjoyed the party and doesn't seem to care that he isn't having a party.  I said that he can take cupcakes to school and that he and I will spend the day doing things that he likes to do.  Maybe a party next year...

I was also able to get an all important video clip of Justin giving me permission to give him hugs and kisses even when he gets older.  I already had one of Ryan.  These things will be important for me to have in the future.  I keep getting an upload error, so here is the link.

http://youtu.be/2m2hxCiEsug

 

I -Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Boogies!

Justin was playing with his toy food, making a great party for me. Tiny was also present, though he was more of an uninvited guest. Justin asked me if I would like boogies on my ice cream.

"Boogies on my ice cream?" I asked.

"Yes, because I think that I took some boogies from my nose and squeezed them on the ice cream and then said ha ha ha and moved away from left to right so do you want boogies on your ice cream or no?" he explained.

I guess I should just be glad that it isn't real food.

Christmas

We got the tree decorated. Justin was able to help put things on the lower branches. Ryan was able to take things off of the lower branches. It became a race to see who was faster. My busy little boys! Justin wanted to climb on a chair to reach higher, but we nixed that and forced him to stay within his reach. Parents can be so mean. The first ornament on the tree was one that Justin made at the Embassy Christmas party. He was so proud of the ornament. It is, well, let's just say that it is a treasure because my 2 year old made it. I don't think we have to insure it or anything. He had so much fun with his "project" too. My mom got him started on the idea of doing projects. Projects can be a variety of things involving glue, paint, markers, crayons, etc. I need to be better about getting projects for him to do. It isn't like I don't have anything. A lot of my teaching stuff is here and I have several things that Justin can do. It just gets to be a pain with Tiny helping all the time and Justin needing help but not wanting to have help.

Okay, back to Christmas. Yep, in that picture Tiny has something small in his mouth. Justin makes it nearly impossible to keep things even close to baby proof. Actually, since Tiny is over a year now I guess it is 'toddler' proof. My baby is so big! Ryan loves to stick anything and everything in his mouth except when I want him too. He will eat ants, paper, rubberbands, and the like, but will turn up his nose at new foods. Why is it that kids do that? Don't say that those things taste better than my cooking. At the Embassy party, Justin was a bit shy of Santa. When the gifts started coming out of the bag, Daddy was able to persuade him that maybe approaching Santa was not such a bad idea. It took awhile, but Justin did warm up enough to get his present and talk Santa's ear off. Probably better when he was shy. Ryan, on the other hand, was very different. He cried even getting near Santa. The picture of me with Tiny and Santa was the happiest Tiny was during the whole Santa time. Isn't it strange? I know it is common for small children to be afraid or shy of Santa, but my kids are generally so outgoing and love everyone. Justin was already blabbing about Santa non-stop, yet seeing him in the flesh was another story. Probably even stranger than kids being afraid around Santa is the need we parents feel to push our kids onto the lap of this stranger (don't we usually say DON'T go to strangers?) and try to get a picture. What are we thinking? Beats me.